Research

Well, here is the answer to that last post:

Queens College lizards

Leapin' Lizards!

I was sitting on the Queens College campus yesterday, eating my very grown up lunch of peanut butter and jelly, when this little beast and 2 of his friends came scampering right up to me, mouths agape. What?!?!! Is this real life? Seriously though, can someone explain why there are lizards in Queens? I guess I will have to google it.

I think this should be my last blog digression before I finally start blogging about Europe again.

Topical

Contrary to what people might think, my dad loves to tell his 9/11 story. Seriously, my family will lose him in the grocery story and find him 5 minutes later talking to some new stranger about it. It's almost borderline creepy how many people have heard his story, whether they've wanted to or not. His hands still visibly burned, a lot of people still ask him what happened.

So for him today, I was able to dig up these newspaper articles to share his story with the ears (or eyes) that haven't heard or seen it yet. Both articles shift focus to a stranger taking my dad out of harm's way, so hopefully they (though kind of poorly written) will at least be mildly uplifting!

Newsday 9.29.01

New York Times 10.14.01

"You bring the Röstis, I'll bring the Toasties"

I have a whole lot of Europe blogging to catch up on, but, important things first: the Rösti. Before our trip, Billie showed me a picture of one, and both me and my bottomless pit of a stomach knew that eating one had to be one of our (ahem,main) goals on the trip. The Rösti is considered to be the national dish of Switzerland, as potatoes are the country's main crop.

Here is a photo of the one I had in Bern, Switzerland. I ordered one with cheese, and they weren't kidding about the cheese:


We only managed to eat one of these on the trip, and my inclination toward food fixations dictated that I must figure out how to make these as soon as we got back home. Lucky for me, Justin sent me a YouTube link that is a "how to" guide for making Röstis, sponsored by a Swiss news and information website. Here is the site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh0VQGhCdeM While I pronounce it "Roastie" as Americanly as possible, when the Swiss guy says it, it almost sounds like Salman Rushdie's last name.

While delicious, the Rösti was pretty simple to make. Some improvements for next time are to brown the potatoes a little longer, use a smaller frying pan, and to add salt during the process instead of after. Otherwise, these guys kept Meghan and me full for most of the day, but based on the amount of butter used, this may be a "once in a while" kind of breakfast.




For more Rösti food porn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6sti

Cat lady

Chubs is finally coming to terms not only with his weight, but also with technology. What better way to incorporate both than Wii Fit? He just doesn't realize that simply lying on the balance board isn't going to get him anywhere. I'll give him some credit though, I caught him in the kitchen yesterday munching on a spinach leaf.

Mac/Iphone friendly. Lots of emails to check and Maru videos to watch.

Subs-titute

Hmmm....this looks familiar. This new sub place just replaced a Subway. Come on guys...be a little more creative? I'd try not to knock it before I try it, but I hate Subway to begin with, so I'll leave that up to someone else to decide.

Tunnel vision

Molly had the great idea of reserving spots for the Atlantic Avenue tunnel tour yesterday, and most of you came to this, so I don't really need to explain too much. If you didn't go, the tour is of a rediscovered subway/LIRR tunnel under Atlantic Avenue, and is well worth the $15 and the risk of getting completely soaked and muddied when climbing back up the manhole in the pouring rain.

I'm really bummed that I forgot my camera, but I managed to get a couple pictures with my crappy phone.

Tunnel entrance:

Little passageway between the entrance and the actual tunnel...Dan looks a bit like he was photoshopped into this pic:

It looks like the next tour is August 16th. Check out the website for better information: http://www.brooklynrail.net/proj_aatunnel.html

I think my dad would be really into this, so I might just have to go on another tour!